UFC 289: Start Time, Who's Fighting & Who to Watch
It's been almost a year since the last octagon appearance for "The Lioness" Amanda Nunes. The UFC Bantamweight champion returns for her second reign and looks to defend her title against the surging Mexican prospect Irene Aldana.
The fight card is steeped top to bottom in exciting matchups and high-caliber fighters. Keep on top of the event by knowing when it starts, who's fighting, and who to watch.
UFC 289: Nunes vs. Aldana Start Time
(via ESPN)
- UFC 289 early prelims begin 7:00 p.m. / Et
- UFC 289 prelims begin 8:00 p.m. / Et
- UFC 289 main card begins 10:00 p.m. / Et
UFC 289: Full Card
(via ESPN)
Early Prelims
- Diana Belbita vs. Maria Oliveira - Women's Strawweight
- Aiemann Zahabi vs. Aoriqileng - Bantamweight
- Kyle Nelson vs. Blake Bilder - Featherweight
Hakeem Dawodu vs. Lucas Almeida(Dawodu withdrew)
Prelims
- #12 Nassourdine Imavov vs. #14 Chris Curtis - Middleweight
- #15 Miranda Maverick vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius - Women's flyweight
#14 Khalil Rountree Jr. vs. Chris Daukaus(Daukaus Injury)#8 Matt SchnellSteven Erceg vs. #10 David Dvorak - Flyweight (Schnell injury)
Main Card
- Marc-André Barriault vs. Eryk Anders - Middleweight
- #13 Dan Ige vs. Nate Landwehr - Lightweight
Stephen Thompson vs. Michel Pereira(Moved to UFC 291)- Mike Malott vs. Adam Fugitt - Welterweight
- #1 Charles Oliveira vs. #4 Beneil Dariush - Lightweight
- (c) Amanda Nunes vs.
Julianna Pena#5 Irene Aldana - Women's Bantamweight (Pena rib injury)
UFC 289: The Finishers
UFC 289 features one fighter with a 100% finish rate. Canada's Mike Malott is now 2-0 in the UFC and has finished all nine of his professional victories by KO/TKO/Submission.
Two fighters hold an 80% or higher finish rate. No. 10 ranked flyweight David Dvorak has an even split of eight knockouts and eight submissions, and Adam Fugitt has only seen a decision once in nine professional victories.
Former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira has finished 30 of his 33 professional victories. "Do Bronx" is the current record holder for submissions in the UFC with 16, and has the most finishes in UFC history with 19.
UFC 289: High Stakes Matchups
On our prelims, Miranda Maverick defends her top 15 ranking against Jasmine Jasudavicius. Ranked UFC flyweight Dvorak defends his top-ten ranking against his late-notice opponent Steven Erceg. Nassourdine Imavov and Chris Curtis look to break back into the win column at middleweight and take a stab at the top 10.
Nate Landwehr is going to try and steal Dan Ige's featherweight ranking. Oliveira and Beneil Dariush are fighting for lightweight title contention, and the winner will most likely fight Islam Makhachev in Abu Dhabi in October.
Nunes makes her second bantamweight reign and looks to defend for the first time against Aldana.
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